[conspire] Federales in Portland?

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> While I am at the computer...  A couple days ago there were people in
> Chicago throwing stones at the police.  The rioters wanted to take
> down a statue of Columbus.  I get it that there is a dark side about
> the Columbus story that isn't in most history books.  BUT IMO, tearing
> down a statue is destruction of public property and should not be
> accepted.

Certainly, it should not.  That is vandalism, and should be proseuted to
the full extent of the law.

The fact that Columbus was a sadistic mass murderer is a different matter,
and whether to honour him ought to be up to the city of Chicago.
(https://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day)

> Just removing statues erases the story.  

Well, no.  If the city of Chicago decided to move a statue of
Christopher Columbus into a museum, or even into a warehouse, that would
not erase any story.  Nor would moving statues of the 1860-1865 dirtbag
traitors against the republic, either.

We the people deciding (democratically) whom we choose to honour in our
public spaces is not erasing any history.  Let's not exaggerate, please.

If every statue of Christopher Columbus were to be melted down tomorrow, 
100% of his history would still be with us.